9!76 M. Chateauneuf on the Changes of the 



6. From eighty to a hundrecL years, none remained : a whole 

 generation had run its course. 



7. The general proportion of deaths was determined to be 

 as one to thirty-two*, and that of births as one to twenty-eight. 



3. It was reckoned that there was one marriage in a hun- 

 dred and ten, or a hundred and fifteen individuals, and that 

 the degree of fecundity was pretty accurately represented by 

 four children for each couple, although, at the same time, this, 

 as well as all the other relations, was liable to vary according to 

 the places. In Spain and Italy, there were only two children 

 from each marriage ; in France and Russia four ; from six to 

 eight in Germany, and from eight to eleven in Sweden. 



9. All these facts were deduced from the calculations of Nec- 

 ker, Moheau, and the Pommelles, in France; those of Short 

 and Price, in England ; of Sussmilch in Germany, and of Far- 

 gentin in Sweden. 



10. Such then, about the year 1780, were the principal laws 

 to which a more or less perfect state of society, a more or less 

 active industry, and more or less limited means of existence, 

 subjected the course of human life in Europe. 



11. Since then facts have increased, and at the same time 

 have become more accurate ; great political changes have taken 

 place ; civilization and the arts of industry have advanced with 

 rapidity ; and science demands that we examine what may have 

 been their influence upon human life. 



12. We have seen what were its laws half a century ago i 

 with the old state let us compare the present. 



We have already said that the inquiries into this subject 

 were now facilitated by the possession of more numerous and 

 more extensive documents. Of these documents we shall take 

 the official accounts inserted in the different periodical collec- 

 tions, which have continued to publish them with care for seve- 

 ral years. We shall cite especially of these collections, the Bul- 



• M. Crome divides the nations, with reference to this circumstance, into 

 three classes. The mortality is 1 in 30 in the rich and populous nations ; 1 in 

 32 in those which are less so ; and, lastly, 1 in 36 in poor nations, where the 

 population languishes or decreases. The number 32 is precisely the exact 

 mean of these three proportions ; its extreme terms are 22 in Holland, and 

 58 in Russia. 



